Pritchett bullet ?

Watched a short documentary on the British Enfield 1853 rifle and they talked in depth about the paper patched Pritchett bullet used by the British as an alterative to the Minnie ball of the time. Made into paper cartridges, the smooth sided hollow based bullet had a lubed paper patch that was said to load so easy the weight of the ramrod only could seat the bullet and fouling was very minimal. Another odd feature was the bullets were swaged and not poured, not sure if swaging was common practice for the time.

Is this type of loading in common use by todays black powder shooters ? Were there downsides to this bullet ? Didn't sound like it caught on or was used by other nations. Just thought it was interesting and wondered if anyone here had used them or knows more about it. Carry on.

I make the cartridges and shoot them in my two 3-band Enfields and musketoon. They are fun to make. There are a bunch of videos on the history and design of the cartridge and its use by the British and later the confederates during the Civil War. Go to Papercartridges.com. Brett Gibbons is a foremost expert and has a books and videos on the subject. He also sells the Boxer-Pritchett bullets and cartridges.

Here's a photo from my desk where I assemble the cartridges. I cast the .550 Boxer-Pritchett bullets from a NOE mold, make fired clay plugs from NOE plug mold, and make the paper cartridges using the Forth Armoury dowels/templates.

The English Cartridge: Pattern 1853 Rifle-Musket Ammunition Paperback​

by Brett Gibbons (Author)

probably has all you need to know and more

tjiann said:

Here's a photo from my desk where I assemble the cartridges. I cast the .550 Boxer-Pritchett bullets from a NOE mold, make fired clay plugs from NOE plug mold, and make the paper cartridges using the Forth Armoury dowels/templates.

Click to expand...

How do you cope with shrinkage on firing the clay plugs formed in the mould? What clay and at what temperature do you fire them?

I use this low fire clay I got from Amazon. I put the mold with clay plugs in toaster oven at I believe around 400 degrees for a half an hour, then dump the dried clay plugs into an old soup can with a wire handle on it. I repeat this until I have the desired number made, then put the soup can/plugs in my fire pit surrounded by charcoal while I'm casting the lead bullets.

The North-South Skirmish Association bans the use of patched bullets for competition. IIRC, this was due to burning patches being a fire hazard.

I guess you could call cylindrical Whitworth bullets Pritchett bullets too due to the lack of grooves. YMMV

rmark said:

The English Cartridge: Pattern 1853 Rifle-Musket Ammunition Paperback​

by Brett Gibbons (Author)

probably has all you need to know and more

Click to expand...

Hi there.
Does he indicate what paper the original military ammunition was made with?

Watch the latest video on Youtube for the real skinny.

kyron4 said:

Watched a short documentary on the British Enfield 1853 rifle and they talked in depth about the paper patched Pritchett bullet used by the British as an alterative to the Minnie ball of the time. Made into paper cartridges, the smooth sided hollow based bullet had a lubed paper patch that was said to load so easy the weight of the ramrod only could seat the bullet and fouling was very minimal. Another odd feature was the bullets were swaged and not poured, not sure if swaging was common practice for the time.

Is this type of loading in common use by todays black powder shooters ? Were there downsides to this bullet ? Didn't sound like it caught on or was used by other nations. Just thought it was interesting and wondered if anyone here had used them or knows more about it. Carry on.

Click to expand...

The Pritchett bullet, a co-design by Pritchett and Metford, preceded the Minié design by a few short years, so that when the British went to war in the Crimea in 1854, the .702 cal Pritchett bullet was the sole option. Swaging was THE most common method of mass-production of these large bullets, and most others, too.

TFoley said:

The Pritchett bullet, a co-design by Pritchett and Metford, preceded the Minié design by a few short years, so that when the British went to war in the Crimea in 1854, the .702 cal Pritchett bullet was the sole option. Swaging was THE most common method of mass-production of these large bullets, and most others, too.

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The following was gleaned from Wikipedia so take it with the proverbial grain. I read that the Minié was invented in 1846. I understand that the Pritchett bullet was developed later. Not trying to start anything but are you sure the Pritchett came first?

IIRC, the book covers everything about that cartridge.

IIRC, the Minie bullet came first, the Pritchett later. However the paper patched Pritchett required a close fit in the barrel and manufacturing tolerances just weren't tight enough for mass use. The English 'Pritchett' bullet really should be known as the 'Hay' bullet, as he modified it back closer to the Minie for widespread troop use.

The P1853 Enfield cartridge evolved through 3 bullet designs.

The first was the "Pritchett" bullet. It was a smooth-sided bullet with a shallow cavity. The cavity was mostly a place to tuck the ends of the paper cartridge into. It was not really an expanding bullet, but a compression bullet, that bumped up to take the rifling by collapsing upon its length when fired.

Unfortunately, when the bullets were sized at their minimum (.566), and a musket's bore was at its maximum tolerance, the bullet could not bump up that much to take the rifling. So, it became very inaccurate.

This bullet was quickly replaced with the Hay bullet. It was still a .568" bullet, but had a deep cavity like the P51 bullet had. This cavity was initially filled with iron cups, then iron truncated cone cups, and finally wooden plugs.

It was found that these bullets because exceedingly hard to load when the rifles were fouled, and due to shipping and handling issues with the ammunition itself.

The final iteration was the Boxer bullet, which was .550" in diameter. It utilized a boxwood plug and finally a fired clay plug.

kyron4 said:

Watched a short documentary on the British Enfield 1853 rifle and they talked in depth about the paper patched Pritchett bullet used by the British as an alterative to the Minnie ball of the time. Made into paper cartridges, the smooth sided hollow based bullet had a lubed paper patch that was said to load so easy the weight of the ramrod only could seat the bullet and fouling was very minimal. Another odd feature was the bullets were swaged and not poured, not sure if swaging was common practice for the time.

Is this type of loading in common use by todays black powder shooters ? Were there downsides to this bullet ? Didn't sound like it caught on or was used by other nations. Just thought it was interesting and wondered if anyone here had used them or knows more about it. Carry on.

Click to expand...

Dear Kryon The videos of 'Paper patch 'show the correct cartridge in considerable detail the 550 cal Pritchet PP bullet with wood or clay plug was found thee best bullet for Govt troops useing the 1853 Enfield's is was THEE best cartridge for all branches of service including the US both sides of your Civil War . latterly at least . .While Moulds where supplied the Factory rounds where swaged to ensure equal size & weight .And the shooting was fine & loading easy follow their posts &' Bloke on the range ' &' Capandball ' great stuff on these . LEM Moulds UK will make you the mould I don't think any one offers Swaged bullets .
Regards Rudyard who has no shares in either company

Rudyard said:

Dear Kryon The videos of 'Paper patch 'show the correct cartridge in considerable detail the 550 cal Pritchet PP bullet with wood or clay plug was found thee best bullet for Govt troops useing the 1853 Enfield's is was THEE best cartridge for all branches of service including the US both sides of your Civil War . latterly at least . .While Moulds where supplied the Factory rounds where swaged to ensure equal size & weight .And the shooting was fine & loading easy follow their posts &' Bloke on the range ' &' Capandball ' great stuff on these . LEM Moulds UK will make you the mould I don't think any one offers Swaged bullets .
Regards Rudyard who has no shares in either company

Click to expand...

Papercartridges.com sells swaged Enfield bullets.

The .550 bullet was not a "Pritchett" bullet. It was a new design brought forth by Boxer, based on the previous design brought forth by Hay.

maillemaker said:

Papercartridges.com sells swaged Enfield bullets.

The .550 bullet was not a "Pritchett" bullet. It was a new design brought forth by Boxer, based on the previous design brought forth by Hay.

Click to expand...

Pritchet sold his Bullet & Rifes to the US no doubt Hay ect developed there variants but the Pritchet bullet was the Pritchet bullet his last design if granted his first wasn't perfect I have a mould that was made to cast the first pattern that one that caused hard to load problems in the Indian Mutiny hence the other worthies input .
.Ive travelled that road from Cawnpore to Lucknow where that particular problem came to light. & slept in Wheelers Cantonment saw the ghats they shot the European's despite agreeing a truce and The Well with its dumped bodies & the slaughter of the women & the message written in Classical Greek still sat in a glass case on the Courthouse steps the classical Greek was because only an Officer would have known that language & no' Pandi' could read it if the messenger was killed . incidentally the first Civilian Victoria cross was awarded a Company Clark name of Cavener he had to darken his face & hide his blond hair to pass as a native he 'spoke the lingo , But sure earned his VC .connecting the besieged Residency to Havlocks relief column .(Nobody had cell phones ) I later camped on the old Cantonment's before the Red Fort in old Delhi just a big flat area with ruins plenty of them in India .
Rudyard hardly a seasoned ' Mull' but do know the place .

See they had a' Pondi 'too . Was I their? well no but just a bit later .